Continuous mattress handle



Aug 16, 1955 J. c. HlRscHMAN 2,715,229

CONTINUOUS MATTRESS HANDLE Filed Jan. 30, 1952 3 Sheets-Sheet l H1-'TOMMY ug- 16, 1955 J. c. HiRscl-IMAN y 2,715,229

CONTINUOUS MATTRESS HANDLE Filed Jan. 30, 1952 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INvENTo/a, -1 JEROME CLIFTON H/psc'HMAN.

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HFFORNEY Aug. 16, 1955 .1. c. HlRscHMAN CONTINUOUS MATTRESS HANDLE 3 Sheets-Sheet I5 Filed Jan. 30, 1952 llll lli. il

INVENTOR, JEQOME CL/FTo/v H/QSCHMAN, BY M Q m -TODNEY United States Patent O CONTINUOUS MATTRESS HANDLE Jerome Clifton Hirschman, Indianapolis, Ind.

Application January 30, 1952, Serial No. 269,020

4 Claims. (Cl. 5-345) This invention relates to a bed mattress and partcularly to a handle applied to the vertical edge portions of the mattress, by which handle the mattress may be lifted and moved about. A primary purpose of the invention is to provide handle means on the mattress which may not only be extremely simple in production and easily attached to the mattress, but which will supply a handle in a more or less continuous manner throughout the extended lengths of the mattress, across its ends, o1' entirely therearound.

A further primary object of the invention is to provide a side or edge reinforcing means inherent in the handle structure wherein the handle serves as a limiting factor of expansion of those mattress edges.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those versed in the art in the following description of one particular form of the invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a view in perspective of the mattress embodying the invention;

Fig. 2 is a view in detail in vertical elevation on an enlarged scale of a side wall of the mattress;

Fig. 3 is a view in horizontal section on a still further enlarged scale taken on the line 3-3 in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary side elevation of a modified form of structure embodying the invention;

Fig. 5 is a horizontal section on the line 5-5 in Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a horizontal section on the same line 5 5 in Fig. 4 but slightly modified in structure and on a larger scale;

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary top plan view in partial section of a mattress to which the invention is applied; and

Fig. 8 is a detail in vertical section of the cord and spring interconnection.

To the side wall 10 of a mattress 11, Figs. 1-3, a strap or band 12 of substantially non-stretchable material is secured. The width of the band 12 is made to be lesss than the height of the wall 10, and preferably of that width which may be conveniently gripped by ones hand.

The band 12 is secured to the wall 10 in any suitable manner, herein shown as by means of stitching 13. The securing means such as the stitching 13 is spaced longitudinally along the length of the band 12 so as to provide sutlicient space between the stitching or other securing means employed to permit the insertion of ones hand behind the band 12 and in front of the wall 10.

The exact style of the stitching 13 insofar as the invention is concerned may vary considerably. For example, Fig. 2, the stitching 13 may consist of the spaced apart vertical stitching 14 and 15, and if desired by the interconnecting cross stitching 16 and 17. The important feature is that the band 12 be secured to the wall 10 with a suicient degree of permanentness as will prevent the band 12 from being torn 0H from the wall 10 in any ordinary handling of the mattress 11.

While the wall 10, Figs. 1 and 2, is shown as hav` Mice d@ ing the vertically disposed stitching 18, this is immaterial in respect to the invention per se, since the wall 10 may conceivably be formed with any design of stitching desired, or the stitching may in some instances be omitted entirely.

It is preferable that the band 12 be carried entirely around the two sides and two ends of the mattress 11, but in some instances, where material is desired to be saved particularly, the band 12 may be limited to extended lengths along the sides, or separately along the sides and both ends. The critical feature is that the band 12 extends for some length along the sides at least, in order to provide a series of loops or free length portions 19 serving as handle grips by which the mattress may be manipulated to any position desired. In other words,

the mattress may be picked up or handled by engaging any.

one of the loops 19 at any position along the sides or ends, so that there is always available a handle at any portion of the mattress approached from the sides or ends. Preferably the band 12 is positioned to be intermediate the top and bottom corners 26 and 21 of the mattress, so that the handle loops 19 will be spaced equally from those edges regardless of which side of the mattress may be turned upwardly.

Referring to Figs. 5-8, a modiiied form of the invention is illustrated wherein instead of a flat band, a cord band is employed. The view shown in Fig. 4 may equally as well represent an end of the mattress as a side wall thereof, reference being made to the illustration as comprising a side wall, equivalent to the side wall 10 as illustrated in Figs. 1-3.

ln this modified form of the invention, a series of grommets 25 are fixed in the wall 10 at regularly spaced intervals therealong, and preferably centrally disposed intermediate the top and bottom edges 26 and 27 thereof.

A band 28, herein shown as in the form of a cord, has an end portion 29 extended through one grommet 25a toward an end of the wall 10, and has a stop carried on.

its inner portion, this stop being of any suitable style desired, and herein shown as consisting simply of a knot 30. From the grommet 25a, the cord 28 is carried along the outer face of the wall 10, then back through the next adjacent grommet 25, to form the externally exposed loop 31, and thence through the grommet 25 to form an interally covered loop 32, and thus back and forth through the various grommets 25 to divide the alternating inside and outside loops 31 and 32. The extreme end loop 31 removed from the grommet 25a has its end portion 33 carried through the last grommet 25 to be secured by its inner end on the inside of the wall 10 in any suitable manner, again herein shown as by a knot 34.

Thus a plurality of loops 31 are disposed along the outside of the wall 10, in spaced apart relation as indicated in views in Figs. 4-7. In the form of the invention as shown in Fig. 6, the cord 28 when gripped by one loop 31 may be under tension from one knot 30 to the last knot 34, to allow the cord 2S to travel somewhat through the various intervening grommets 25 so that a larger loop 31 may be afforded. In any event, the pull upon the side wall 10 when the mattress is gripped by one or more of these loops 31 is substantially distributed along the wall 10 and is not localized as has heretofore been the case when the loops have been individually secured to the side wall 10.

In that form of the invention as illustrated in Fig. 5, the cord 28 is provided with stops 35 along the inner loops 32. In the form herein shown, these stops 35 are simply knots tied in the cord 28 so that the knot will limit the travel of the cord 28 longitudinally of itself by the knot 35 striking the inner side of the grommet 25 in the direction in which the cord is being pulled.

As illustrated in Figs. 7 and 8, the cord 28 instead of having the intervening stops 35 between adjacent grornf mets on the inside of the wall 10 is carried back and around through the marginal springsr36 which are carried in the usual construction within the mattress 11. The cord forming the inner loop 32 in each instance may Y be wrapped several times, herein shown as twice, by the loops 37 around the central portion of the spring 36 in each instance. In this manner the load of the mattress does not come entirely upon the side wall 10 when any one or more of the loops 31 are gripped, since the load then is carried through the springs 36 to which the inner loops 32 are looped. In this manner, the side wall 10 is not distorted outwardly but is retained insubstantially its at alignment.

The term band is employed herein in its true dictionary sense to include not only flat cloth-like strips, but also cords and strings, and the like.

Therefore it is to be seen that I have provided a most convenient and quite eficient series of handles and at the same time provided a reinforcing of the mattress side and end walls capable of being produced at a relatively low cost of production. While the invention has been described in minute detail in the one precise form, it is obvious that structural variations may be employed without departing from the spirit of the invention, and I therefore do not desire to be -limited to that precise form anymore than may be required by the limitations irnpo'sed bythe following claims.

I claim:

1f. lFor 'a mattress having an innerspring construction including vertically disposed coil springs and having a side wall enclosing the springs, a handle construction comprising a continuous length of cord carried longitudinally along a major length of said side wall and intermediate to top and bottom edges of the wall, a plurality of grommets tixed in said wall and spaced therealong in a line d'ening the positioning of said cord, the cord being threaded slidingly in and out through said grommets to Vhave alternate lengths inside and outside along said wall,

the ends of the cord being secured against withdrawal through grommets near the ends of said wall, and said cord having said inner disposed lengths in each instance engaging one of said coil springs which is spaced between the grommets defining the inner cord length, whereby pulling on one of said outer lengths will increasingly yieldingly be resisted by one of said coil springs one after another, the cord being snubbed in bending around said grommets.

2. The structure of claim l in which said cord to spring engagement consists of several turns of the cord around a loop of the spring.

3. For a mattress having an innerspring construction with vertically disposed springs spaced along an outer side wall of the mattress, a handle construction comprising a length of cord, a series of grommets carried by and spaced longitudinally in a line along said wall intermediate its top and bottom, one of said springs being located between adjacent grommets said cord being secured by one end to said wall and carried from that securement by a length along the outer side of said Wall, then bending inwardly through a grommet to the inside of the wall by a length extending longitudinally inside to said spring and engaging the spring by its approximately mid-length to a vertically central portion of the spring between that grommet and the next adjacent grommet,

extending from the spring and bending outwardly through said next grommet and thence bending therefrom by a length extending along the outside of said wall and thence secured to said wall, a handle being provided on each side of said spring by said outside cord length, whereby a pull on either of said handle lengths will tend to pull said cord longitudinally of said wall in snubbing action through its bends at said grommets, 4said pull being further resisted by yielding side distortion of the central portion of said spring.

4. The structure of claim 3 in which said cord is continuous in length and its engagement to said spring is by several turns of the cord about a turn of the spring.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 132,686 Pack et al. Oct. 29, 1872 416,078 Smith Nov. 26, 1889 765,756 Stratton July 26, 1904 1,456,168 Witmer et al. May 22, 1923 1,731,530 Goldeen et al. Oct. 15, 1929 1,746,709 Marshall Feb. 11, 1930 2,021,238 Karr Nov. 19, 1935 FOREIGN PATENTS 19,356 Great Britain Aug. 23, 1912 

